A somber tone fell over Dallas, leaving most of the streets empty except for police, media and protesters during Dallas’s 50th anniversary memorial for John F. Kennedy Friday.
At approximately 12:10 p.m., Austin-based radio personality Alex Jones and a group of protesters marched from the Belo Park Garden to Dealey Plaza demanding truth and freedom of speech.
A crowd of Dallas residents who were watching the memorial via a screen facing the lot and a handful of independent protesters already stood in the parking lot.
A young girl in a pink jacket sat on a man’s shoulders. Several men wore Guy Fawkes masks and another man wore revolutionary era clothes complete with a tri-cornered hat, knickers, stockings and a white shirt with lace cuffs. Dogs walked in and out of the protester crowd.
Signs, fliers, a bullhorn, even a ventriloquist doll, all things not allowed by Mayor Mike Rawlings, were carried by protesters as they gathered on left side of the Main Street and North Market Street intersection.
“Mayor Mike Rawling tells me I can’t hold a sign, I hold a sign,” protester David Griffin said. “You can’t tell people not to hold signs, fliers…The constitution voids that.”
Griffin was there not only to defend freedom of speech, but also to “expose the massive fraud that was going on at this event.”
“Why did the Secret Service walk away at that moment?” Griffin said as held a large sign with a photo of the moment JFK was assassinated. “For a clear shot,” he said.
Jones continued to broadcast his radio show as the crowd chanted various phrases.
“Truth and justice,” the protesters chanted as “America the Beautiful” was sung moments before the bells rang at 12:30 p.m.
The Coalition of Political Assassinations also had a demonstration. Members of the organization were wearing yellow shirts with the image of a 50-cent coin with a bullet hole in the JFK’s head. COPA members passed out fliers to an event planned later that day that discussed the JFK assassination.
“I am here to get the truth uncovered, the cover up by the U.S. government,” said member Rupert Robinson. “JFK assassination changed the course of history.”
Robinson took a train from Georgia to demonstrate.
Middle school students in the AVID program and their teacher drove from Rusk, Texas, two and half hours away from Dallas, to be at the memorial. They stood intermixed with Dallas residents and protesters.
“I wanted them to be part of history,” teacher Brandy Cook said. “They don’t know this. It’s part of their grandparents’ and their parents’ history.”
The class had been studying JFK for the past weeks and planned on attending the Sixth Floor Museum after the memorial,
“Like the protesters, they were scared, ” Cook said. “It’s something they would have never experienced in a small town.”
The group continued to move around the area behind Dealey Plaza and the Main Street and North Market Street intersection. After the memorial ended, protesters moved into the middle of the intersection, causing roads to be shutdown and traffic to be redirected.
The multiple platforms within the group was apparent as the chants ranged from “Obama is JFK,” “Arrest George Bush,” to just “JFK.” One man yelled about the unconstitutional nature of taxes, a woman held a “LBJ Did It” sign and another held a homemade sign saying “CIA killed JFK.”
As the memorial area was being taken apart and rain increased, the protesters continued on until police action was taken at approximately 1:45 p.m. according to a Dallas Morning News article.
No one was injured and no arrests were made. Police did not use chemicals or weapons in pushing protesters out of the area.
“I hope conspiracy theorist will put this to rest,” Dallas financial advisor Sharon Washburn said. “It happened. One person could have taken that shot. That guy had marine training.”
